Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to each of our witnesses.
Your testimony is indicative of how important it is for us to ensure that we are bringing down the death rates across the country. Every single death is important.
Ms. Lovegrove, as you alluded to in your presentation, every victim represents the end of a beating heart and a family and a community in mourning. We have to take action.
I want to start off by asking Ms. Oviedo-Joekes and Ms. Lovegrove the following questions: What should the federal government be doing more? Should it be declaring a national health emergency as we see numbers climb in Alberta and Saskatchewan? Should it be putting into place funding for safe consumption sites so that we can bring the death toll down, particularly on the Prairies where it is staggeringly high and increasing daily?
Ms. Oviedo-Joekes, you talked about dissenting with the truth. How much harm are people doing, are politicians doing, when they say things that are simply not true when it comes to dealing with this public health care emergency?